Improvement: Finding Fights, Map Adjustments, Alert Systems, Stop Losing The Map Without Knowing!

[Exano]

What's up everybody!

So there's a big problem in Planetside: Figuring out where to go.

Where's the fight? Where are my buddies? What the heck is going on over on Amerish?

This is probably the biggest problem facing the solo player at the moment. If you log on, can't find a fight, you presume the game is dead and log off. Big issue, leads to huge player loss and all sorts of yadda yadda yadda that is not really related to this.

We need changes.

First
#1)
Let the map show friendly activities as well. You know how the map says things like "Enemy Squads Detected" when you hover over it? Well make it say "No Friendlies Detected" and "Friendly Squads Detected" also. This is an incredibly easy fix that will immediately let the player know where his friends are.

#2)
We need to figure out on the FLY what's happening. How often have you been at an epic fight at Tawrich Tech Plant, only to find out "Oh crap, they've almost Warpgated us!?" because you were solo and didn't check your map, or you were in a squad that had a leader that was kind of not available.

The fix is almost in the game already:


When a base enters attack, we need to know. Not "check the map" to know, we need to know without leaving the battlefield. To know that Zurvan just got a helluva lot easier to fight at was because enemy platoons just advanced on the crown means we can actually defend. This has huge consequences for meta-game and veteran players.

#3)
The system shown above needs to go onto the map as well. It's pretty simple, though you can also get by with shading in the hex.


This is pretty much a reiteration of point #2.

Realistically, this will help players get into fights much easier, find their friends easier, and defend easier. The best part is, for the most part, these fixes are incredibly easy to implement. There is no intense drawing board session, and no artwork is required. It will improve the meta-game drastically.

The only downside is sneak attacking will be less effective with a massive force. The upside is, small, special-ops type units may find themselves in a better position because of this.

This can also tie in to the future mission system, rewarding players for defending hot areas that are under heavy attack, or reinforcing areas that have no friendlies.

How about a per-fight XP buff that we can tie in to this system? The possibilites are endless once the information is displayed to the user correctly.

Anyways, excuse my artwork guys, the servers were down and I couldn't get real screenshots so I had to make due with what was on google image search.

Thoughts, suggestions?

[Crator]

Yeah, the PS1 map showed different alert levels for bases. So that is a good suggestion. Are you talking only bases though? There's so many capture points in PS2 and the speed at which they can be captured seems like this alert system wouldn't help all that much.

Also, PS1 had a map overlay that showed friendly troop concentrations as well as enemy troop concentrations (based on LoS visibility of enemies). PS2 does have this type of map overlay but don't think it shows friendly concentrations as well. Also not sure if enemy concentrations are based on LoS visibility to them or not.

[Exano]

Originally Posted by Crator

Yeah, the PS1 map showed different alert levels for bases. So that is a good suggestion. Are you talking only bases though? There's so many capture points in PS2 and the speed at which they can be captured seems like this alert system wouldn't help all that much.

Also, PS1 had a map overlay that showed friendly troop concentrations as well as enemy troop concentrations (based on LoS visibility of enemies). PS2 does have this type of map overlay but don't think it shows friendly concentrations as well. Also not sure if enemy concentrations are based on LoS visibility to them or not.

Yup, but the information is too limited. It's the same alert style from PS1, yellow alert, orange alert, red alert or what have you. I figured it should work at any base with more then one cap point. So not for instance, Ceres Hydroponics, but it would work at Vanu Archives.

Right now the biggest issue is the fact that you just don't know that its even under attack until it's gone. So while you may not have enough time to get from one side of the map to the other, you'll at least know and are gearing up / on the way when it goes, rather then now which is just "XX FAcility Lost" and its like oh, okay. With an alert system in place, when a squad or more ends up at a big base you'll know the second theyre there. There isnt checking the map every 10 minutes and realizing you're 70% through losing Crossroads Watchtower or something in the middle of a big fight because you weren't able to pay attention. You'll know that they're there, and are already able to start re-routing and reassesing what your doing in battle at that moment.

PS2 has a similar overlay showing the enemy concentrations but it doesn't show you where friends are at all. It's great that theres 2 platoons worth of enemies at a base, but if theres zero friendlies its suicidal and you risk a cooldown if you instant action'd in. If you could see enemy platoon detected/friendly squads detected you'd be able to make a call right away that this battle needs your help.

Enemy Concentrations aren't based on LoS visibility to them, check out the warpgates and stuff for enemy concentrations now to see what I mean. It just goes enemies/squad/squads/platoon/platoons.

[Eliphas]

Good ideas.